Forget White Sand Beaches. These Shores Are Pink, Black, Even Green.

Sure, white sand and crystalline waters are great, but beaches can come in all shades of the rainbow—including green, brown, red, and more. We've added these 12 waterfronts to our travel bucket lists...

Black Sands Beach

Shelter Cove's aptly named beach is the longest stretch of undeveloped beach in the continental U.S., making it a popular destination for surfers seeking solitude.

Rainbow Beach

Cliff erosion has exposed more than 70 different colors of sand along Rainbow Beach, created by combination of iron oxides and leached vegetable dyes.

Red Beach

Santorini's stunning Red Beach is made even more picturesque by its backdrop of soaring red lava cliffs.

Pfieffer Beach

The sand on this Northern California beach is patched with purple, thanks to the manganese garnet deposits in the hills above.

Wai'anapanapa State Park

There are few black sand beaches as stunning as the onyx-hued Wai'anapanapa State Park, which gets its color (or lack thereof) from lava flows falling into the sea.

Ramla Bay

It may not be as dramatic as black sand or red sand, but Malta's Ramla Bay is a rich golden-red hue, unlike any other beach on the island.

Sharp Park Beach

High iron content in the sand at Sharp Park Beach gives the entire beach a warm chocolate hue.

Papakolea Beach

One of only two green sand beaches in the world (the other is in the Galapagos), Papakolea Beach's coloring comes from the mineral olivine.

Pink Sands Beach

Harbour Island is just more than three miles long and a mile wide, but this sliver of an island is undoubtedly home to one of the most unique beaches in the world. The pink sand comes from remnants of red-shelled foraminifera, a single-celled marine animal, mixing with white sand.

Porto Ferro

Muriwai Beach

The black sand and cerulean surf of New Zealand's Muriwai Beach makes it one of the most popular—and most beautiful—destinations for surfers.

Hyams Beach

A white beach doesn't exactly fit in with the world's most colorful beaches, but Hyams Beach isn't just any white beach—it's renowned for having the whitest sand in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.